On the first anniversary of the struggle of agency workers at FAW-Volkswagen in Changchun for equal pay for equal work, we call on the Changchun municipal authorities to immediately release worker representative Fu Tianbo and for FAW-Volkswagen to return to the negotiating table.

Fu Tianbo, who led more than a thousand agency workers in their campaign to be paid the same and treated the same as regular employees at FAW-Volkswagen, was detained in May 2017 and has been charged with “gathering a crowd to disrupt public order.” He remains in detention awaiting trial.

Volkswagen has so far turned a blind eye to the fate of Fu Tianbo and the other agency workers whose long-standing grievances over pay and working conditions remain unresolved. FAW-Volkswagen must return to the negotiating table and engage in good faith collective bargaining with worker representatives so that a mutually acceptable resolution to the dispute can be arrived at.

China’s Labour Contract Law and Volkswagen’s own Charter on Temporary Work both recognize the rights of agency employees to equal pay for equal work and it is imperative that Volkswagen and FAW (one of the most profitable car manufacturing companies in China) honour their commitments to their workers.